The present invention relates to a display/operation apparatus for an elevator system and more particularly to the display/operation apparatus which is equipped with a touch screen display or the like.
As the conventional display/operation apparatuses for the elevator system known heretofore, there can be mentioned those equipped with a so-called push-button-type switch array which includes car call buttons or destination indicating buttons physically pushed through operation by a passenger of the elevator or a touch button switch array operated by touching concave or like portions of the buttons and additionally equipped with lamps which are caused to light in response to operation of buttons dedicated for registration of calls entered by the passenger and/or an indicator realized in the form of a seven-segment display device or the like for indicating the position of the elevator car by numerical symbols, wherein the display/operation apparatus is installed internally of the elevator car and/or at an elevator hall.
Recently, there has been proposed such type of the display/operation apparatus in which an image display is used as a display device with an array of touch switches making appearance on the image displaying surface so as to function as a touch screen display, as is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 144726/1994 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,934 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 208157/1996).
Additionally, such type of display/operation apparatus has also been proposed in which contents of the graphic information to be displayed are projected as an image or images onto a region of a wall surface in which touch pads are provided in advance so that desired operation or operation can be effectuated discriminatively by touching a relevant pad or pads, as is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 026033/2000.
However, differing from the conventional display/operation apparatus composed of push buttons and lamps, the touch screen display for displaying graphic images or pictures as well as the projection-type display/operation apparatus developed recently suffers a problem that occurrence of some abnormality in some portion of the display device will result in shutdown of the whole display function and hence the passengers are utterly at a loss as to how to perform an input operation because no input means are displayed, incurring thus remarkable degradation of the reliability of the elevator system.
Further, with regard to the input operation through operation of the touch screen display, it is observed that upon occurrence of an abnormality in the function of a control module for the touch switches on the touch screen display, the input operation on the whole is rendered invalid, while in the case of the projection-type touch pad position display, the very objects to be manipulated can no more be visibly recognized, incurring a panic among the passengers riding in the elevator car or confinement of the passengers within the car.
The present invention which has been made with a view to solving the problems such as described above contemplates it as an object to provide a display/operation apparatus in which specific operation buttons are provided independent of a touch screen display so that at least the most basic operation can be assured with the aid of the specific operation buttons even when a fault occurs in the touch screen display, to thereby prevent the elevator system from completely shutting down while ensuring safety and quietude for the passengers.